The forest outside of the Silver Rose Inn, this is a wild place. To the south is the village, but everywhere else that is off the beaten path is wild.

---

Just inside the forest, near the inn, a large wolf is sitting, waiting. Savera glides from a window of the inn and lands on the ground next to him, holding a piece of bloody cloth in her beak. She turns to look for Rey.

I'm here, Deyono'rey. Something is wrong, I can't breathe...! I can't see anything...! Yue is obviously not going to be any help on this trip, for the time being.

We're going to fix things. I promise. Just maintain yourself, keep remembering that you are. Important on a dreamscape. Rey's eyes widen and her steps slow as they approach the wolf. "Ehm...hello...."

The wolf makes no move in response, but to fold his forelegs, so that she can climb onto his back easily. His hind legs are, ,of course, already folded, as he was sitting.

"He will do you no harm, He calls himself Hoof. He asks that you hold on tight, when you ride him, for we will be going quickly, and he may not always be able to run smoothly." She has already had the wolf smell the bit of cloth, which she now grips in her claws. They will follow the scent-trail, and Savera will keep an eye out for magic, which she smells better than the wolf smells more real scents.

Rey nods nervously. Isn't sure how to act...finally bows her head a bit to the wolf, smiling wanly, and most gingerly walks over to climb onto its back.

It's a wolf, Rey, gods, please...! It's going to hurt you! It's no wolf, it's a devil, it's one of my brothers...!

Rey stiffens, suddenly extremely frightened. "What?" The words are Chinese. "But...Miss Savera said..." she's on its back now. If something bad is going to happen, it's going to happen.

The wolf gets to it's feet, turning its head back towards the girl. He sets off, loping at an easy, but ground-eating pace, his nose near the ground, but his ears alert, flicking about.

"Hoof says he smells your fear very strongly. He is my friend, there is no need to fear him." Savera flies above them, just above the treetops. She dips down occasionally, looking for signs of magic.

It's a demon! It has wings! Gods, Rey, it has me...!

"Yue, what has you?" Rey cries in her own tongue, not hearing Savera. "Yue, stay with me...what has you? What has wings, I see none!"

A sky-splitting screech rips over the forest. Leaves are cast in all directions as a monstrous gargoyle bursts through the canopy. It careens overhead, squealing its defiance, its smashed-in bird's face and dark, mottled brown skin as beastly as one could ever hope to see.

Dangling from its immense claws is Yue's unconscious body.

The wolf skids to a stop, snarling and growling fiercely, but the gargoyle is too far away, and the girl too heavy on his back, for him to attack it. Savera, however has no such problems, and she screeches, her feathers all flaring brightly as she burns with a silver-white fire. She hurls a fireball at the creature, being sure to aim far enough away from Yue that he probably won't be able to be hit with it. If he is at all, it would just be a graze, because she judges that the gargoyle can't fly fast enough to put Yue directly in the path of the flames.

The monster beats its mighty wings, screeching angrily as the fireball contacts and shatters against its skin. The char mark certainly seems to have gotten its attention, but still it tries to fly away with Yue in tow. Another rumbling, even greater than the gargoyle, shakes the canopy of the trees not far away.

It's a demon, Rey, run...! It's Sheieme, it's one of them...!

<"Yue, I can't...your body, it is hurt. If we fail to retrieve it, you may fade from my dreams with entirely too much permanence!"> Rey bites her lip. Demon...not a demon, a gargoyle, the second scream is demonic considering the shivers that it sends down her spine. She folds her hands lightly together before her face as though praying, eyes peaceful, gaze steady and now a much deeper blue. A vivid, absolutely blinding shock of pure light bursts right in front of the gargoyle. "Miss Savera, Yue called the name of an Armageddon devil of the second voice...!" Book learning, lore, yeah. Got that covered.

Savera doesn't even pause in her assault, flying swiftly after the gargoyle, and, for the moment, mostly ignoring the demon. She flings another fireball at the gargoyle, hoping to slow it enough that she can catch up to it. "Thank you for the light, Friend. I will deal with the devil only when Yue is safe, if possible."

The gargoyle flies faster than its bulk might suggest it could. The ball strikes it, drawing another screech, but the speed of the monster becomes immaterial when the sky between Savera and Yue splits open with a great gash, spewing hellfire up and down in a black, flickering wall.

Sheieme himself is just visible in a clearing not far away.

Savera screeches in defiance, backwinging, so that she doesn't fly into the wall. She flys back and forth, trying to find a way to get past it. Then, she focuses on Sheieme, flying towards him.

Rey's eyes are...wide and terrified. Fear clutches her throat, she can't even speak at first. Finally, and forgetting to broadcast her words through thought or translate to Common, she cries, <"Miss Savera, no, please! That creature is to usher in the apocolypse, even a demi-god as yourself has no prayer...!">

Savera sends back an immediate, uncensored, emotion-filled thought, having heard the girl's thoughts anyway, "I will not abandon him!" The emotions accompanying this are a great deal of anger and determination, and even a hint of despair. She must save Yue. She flies closer still to the being, her blue eyes blazing with the same intensity as her feathers burn.

Sheieme faces her, watching her approach with bland, uncaring eyes. It's not that he isn't concerned, far from it. The rush of wind over the treetops, however, gives him confidence. A vast shadow bleeds over the forest canopy. Far above, the rush of ebony dragonwings sends little eddies of sand swirling on the ground. The devil's hands flicker out and cast a second wall of hellfire in front of himself, not to be outdone by a phoenix.

Savera screeches angrily and flares her wings again, stopping just before the wall. Her entire body glows brighter, burning more, as she flies up a little ways. Then, she folds her wings tightly against her body, diving forward, towards the wall, her own fire flaring and dancing about her.

Below, the wolf is pacing, next to Rey. He's growling angrily. Then, he howls, telling his brothers and cousins of this menace in their forest. Perhaps, just perhaps, if all of them attack at once, they can surprise and overcome the demon.

Rey, meanwhile, is quietly murmuring something, hands moving in precise incantation. She needs to weave a ward against the hellfire over herself. If it lasts only a few moments...it will be enough. She's quivering, but...Savera's words had struck a chord. They have to help Yue, they do.

Sheieme steps back from the wall. He doubts the phoenix can get through, and --

Just as he's thinking that, split crackles sprays over him as Savera bursts through the flames.

Savera whistles in triumph, spreading her wings and gliding upwards now, though she loses some of her speed this way. She throws a fireball at the devil, followed closely by a unique spell meant to paralize the target, causing a great deal of pain in the process. It's something she learned from her fights with the mages.

Rey, meanwhile, feeling the wall wavering and her own protective shield as strong as it's going to get, slips off of Hoof's back, gathers her skirts, and runs silently towards the flames, mostly in the cover of the trees and almost too terrified to move her feet at all. Please don't see me please don't see me please don't see me please don't see me..."

The wolf howls again, then lopes after Rey. The other wolves from the area also begin making their way towards the menace. Birds fly above them, winging silently through the trees, or high above, among the clouds. Also on the ground, there are creatures of the forest, squirrels emptying their nut stashes to fling the nuts at the evil thing or lay a carpet of nuts on the ground where he'll walk, the mice and other small creatures running as fast as their little legs will go, to climb it and bite at it, do their best to distract it. The larger animals will use their claws, horns, antlers, and teeth to attack.

Sheieme has no idea what is going on. Vermin, attacking his feet? It does get his attention, but not so much that he cannot nullify Savera's fireball before it strikes him. He glares at the creatures around them, as surely warning them away as standing there. Hellfire blossoms at his fingertips, and high above the rush of dragonwings grows closer. He doesn't want to have to bring Ineldain into this. But he will, if he has to.

Rey's magical protections aren't extended to Hoof or any other creature. She sucks in her breath, fully aware that this might be literal suicide, lowers her head, and prays to everything she has ever known as she runs straight into the wall of hellfire, hoping to make it past.

The devil's glowering eyes widen just noticeably. The crackling sting of Savera's spell he can endure. However, when Rey'deyono moves into the fire he barks a deep-voiced command, sending the flickering wall into nothing in a heartbeat.

Savera soars high again, then calls almost lovingly to the plants, bringing foreward the connection she's had with all plants since the time she had to hide in her home forest. Trees near the devil reach out their branches, grasping at the devil, vines spring up, some of them thorny, and deftly avoid the rodents and snakes as they try to twine themselves around Sheieme, pulling at what they grab, tugging in all different directions. The larger animals now are close enough to attack, wildcats and bears swiping and biting, wolves howling and lunging, boars and deer thrusting with their horns and tusks.

Rey...is so startled that she actually stops running, looking back at where the hellfire had been. Had he really just...? Why? Blinks as her difficult shields fade, and looks up at where Sheime is being attacked.

The devil has had quite enough. Bear claws smashing into his arms and shoulders, tusks jabbing him... fine. If they want little animal friends, he'll invite his. His tongue clicks again even as he squirms away from the largest of his assailants.

Far above, the great black dragon Ineldain begins its descent. Its guttural roar blasts the landscape like cannon fire, even from such a tremendous height.

Rey's eyes widen. Lifts her skirts again and just...sprints in the general direction that the gargoyle had gone, just because it's a direction, runs for all she's worth. "Miss Savera, please flee...!"

Savera notes the dragon, but seems unconcerned. In reality, she's assessing her chances of survival. Now that her plant and animal friends have joined in the fray, though, she can hardly leave them to their own devices, and she has no doubt that the devil will get his revenge on them if he can. So, she now attacks this dragon, letting her friends distract her other foe for now. The other birds attack the dragon, as well, though none are magical.

Rey is nearly panicking. "Savera, if that is what I think it is, it is no natural dragon, but a world-eater meant to consume all that is...!" Okay, so her version is a little exagerrated, but not much.

The dragon responds in oddly restrained kind to the birds. No flames pass its maw, no slashing claws or teeth attack the winged things. She only flaps her titanic wings, beats them hard enough to send forceful gusts of wind that way.

Savera notes the dragon's leniency with her friends and calls out to them, then she calls to the great dragon, "Friend?" The birds pull back from the leather-winged flier, riding the air.

Ineldain's mind is rather like the business end of a pitch fork. If Savera can sense it she might notice that the blades are beginnng to come to bear about now. The dragon's cavernous maw yawns open, it's breath the stench of napalm. A warning.

Savera immediately dives beneath the great dragon's belly, letting out a warning to her flying friends, and they scatter. The beasts below are still attacking Sheieme, and the plants grasp and tug at his limbs, trying to tie him down, to hold him in place.

The devil below is rather sick of being attacked by mother nature. He gives a mental command, and Ineldain's open mouth fills with flame. It whirls and flickers inside her jaws like rockets flaring into impact.

"... release him..." the dragon's mental voice call out, weak and undeveloped.

Rey is still running, although her underdeveloped endurance is just beginning to wane. Savera, please, call off your friends...!

Savera calls to Sheieme, "Though I cannot guarantee that they will leave you if I ask, if I do ask, will you also ask that my own friend be returned to me?" Her musical voice is hard and sharp, she does not like to negotiate with others, but does so only because Rey asked.

... no choice. need the incubus. save your friends. release him.

Sheieme relaxes, and lets the plants do what they will. It is so nice having a thousand feet of dragon at his command.

Reluctantly, the phoenix calls to her friends. Even more reluctant than her call, the plants relinquish their hold on the devil, and the beasts slink off. Some, seeing her purpose, refuse, until she calls again a second time. Savera, herself, stays. "My friends are gone, but I will not leave you in peace until he is returned to me," Savera calls to Sheieme, her voice practically dripping ice. Never has she abandoned one under her protection, nor will she now.

The devil takes his feet, dusting himself off. "Then," he growls, his voice like the sound of a frying power grid, "you damn this entire forest to death by dragonfire?"

Rey, by now, can't really keep running...she simply isn't conditioned for it, less than a mile from where Sheime, Ineldain, and Savera are arguing. Yue... she manages breathlessly... still there...?

Shrewdly, Savera responds, "I was asked only to release you, which my friends, as you see, have done. Do them no harm now, they do not hinder you. If you will not release Yue, then take me, also. If you will not take me, then release Yue." She will not give this up unless she has no other choice.

Sheieme scowls at that. "I will not be patronized. Do you think I would bring an insurgent in to break the incubus free?" He's stalling. He doesn't want to give Ineldain the go ahead.

She wings her way down, landing on a branch of a tree near Sheieme, "If you will not release him, I will go with you quietly. So long as you do him no harm, I will remain so. And when you are done with him, you will release him, unharmed." Her feathers are dim, no longer flaming, but her blue eyes are piercing and hard.

"If you think I came here to negotiate with a feather duster, you are a fool. Now be gone before my dragon turns this forest into soot." The devil returns her stare, unmoving.

Rey...? Rey...? The dragon is here, Rey! It's going to kill us all! Don't let her tempt it, don't let her have a reason!

"You are free from any bonds, to leave here if you so wish. And I feel enough power in you that it is likely you could make it difficult to follow you. Yet you remain here to treat with me. Because you do, I press once again, if you will not release my friend, the take me also. Even if you do not, I will follow. At least if you bring me with you, I will already be in your power." What she says is perfectly sensible, and she does not lie, when she can help it. She also still refuses to leave Yue.

She won't listen to me, Yue... Rey lets this broadcast plainly, leaning against a tree. And I can't move far enough, fast enough. We can only wait.

Hoof lopes up to Rey, returning from Sheieme. He lays down before her, offering silently to carry her back to the devil, if she should wish it.

Rey shakes her head, just a little. "Yue's self...still that way." Looks off to where the gargoyle had gone. "And...close to dragon, not help us. Thank you." She pats Hoof's head gratefully.